Many earth-working machines, such as, for example, loaders, excavators, hydraulic mining shovels, cable shovels, bucket wheels, and draglines, include buckets for moving material (e.g., for digging material out of the earth). These buckets are often subjected to extreme wear from abrasion and impacts experienced while moving the material In order to mitigate the wear, replaceable lip protectors are fit to lips of the buckets, and engage the material being moved.
FIG. 1 provides an example of a prior art protector assembly 10, which is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,885 to Cornelius. As shown, protector assembly 10 includes a protector mounting lug 12 and a replaceable lip protector 14. Mounting lug 12 has a laterally disposed flange 16, and lip protector 14 has a cavity 18 with load transferring surfaces. When secured to mounting lug 12 by flex pins 20, the load transferring surfaces of lip protector 14 are in mating contact with flange 16. The load transferring surfaces are thus able to transfer load from lip protector 14 to mounting lug 12.
Protector assembly 10 may provide certain benefits in some applications. However, it may have certain drawbacks. For example, flex pins 20 may be difficult to remove and/or install when scaled for large buckets. As another example, mounting lug 12 may allow undesirable movement of lip protector 14 during some portion of assembly 10's operational life. The disclosed embodiments may help solve these problems.